William Nathan Rothstein

William Rothstein has taught at the Aaron Copland School of Music and Graduate Center of the City of New York for over a quarter of a century. During that time, he has advised several dissertations, and his teaching and mentorship have inspired hundreds of performers and scholars, many of whom have themselves become leaders in the field.

William Rothstein started in music as a pianist and earned his undergraduate degree in composition. His principal teachers were Ernst Oster and Allen Forte (theory), Donald Martino (composition), and Theodor Lettvin (piano). Before coming to CUNY, he taught music theory at Amherst College, Oberlin College, and the University of Michigan.

His scholarly scope is extremely profound and has had a deep impact on the fields of music analysis, music theory, and musicology. He has published important analytic essays on works by a wide variety of composers, including Arcangelo Corelli, Ludwig Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Giacomo Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Robert Schumann, Vincenzo Bellini, Donald Martino, and many others. He had been particularly influential with his work on the theories and analytical method of Heinrich Schenker, the theory and analysis of musical rhythm, studies in the history of music theory, and the analysis of nineteenth-century Italian opera.

He is the author of the books Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music, The Musical Language of Italian Opera, 1813–1859, and (with Charles Burkhart) Anthology for Musical Analysis. His articles appear in numerous journals, including Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Online, 19th-Century Music, Integral, and Verdi Forum (US), Music Analysis (UK), Rivista di analisi e teoria musicale (Italy), Ostinato rigore (France), Quodlibet (Spain), and Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie (Netherlands), and in books including Communication in Eighteenth-Century Music, The Practice of Performance, Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata, Beethoven Forum 4, Essays from the Third International Schenker Symposium, and Music Theory in Concept and Practice.

The Aaron Copland School of Music is grateful for Prof. Rothstein’s many years of service to this school and its community and is proud to host this event in his honor.

For information on the Aaron Copland School of Music, see here.